REVIEW

“I have a feeling it's going to be a special night, California,” Jay Z said after kicking off his Magna Carter Tour on Friday at Anaheim's Honda Center with a classic heavy-hitter, “U Don't Know.”

That notion was pretty certain for Mr. Carter by that point in the evening. Just a few hours earlier, when Grammy nominations were revealed in Los Angeles, the Brooklyn rapper, who celebrated his 44th birthday Wednesday, came away leading the pack with nine nods.

And though none were in coveted categories – record, song or album of the year – it was still evident from his smooth, consistently high-spirited delivery that he was in a particularly good mood.

Appropriately, a large part of his strength during this show, which isn't likely to change much as the trek runs its course, was the careful selection and placement of new tunes.

Yet not everything on his latest disc, July's “Magna Carta … Holy Grail,” is exceptional; even Jay ranked it his sixth best ('96 debut “Reasonable Doubt” was No. 1) in a post on his Life and Times blog last week. Only about a third of the tracks – including Nirvana-honoring “Holy Grail,” club bangers “Picasso Baby” and “Tom Ford,” and one of his most swaggering cuts in years, “Somewhere in America,” all expertly executed in Anaheim – home in on his sweet spot.

That's a magical intersection, arguably first reached on 2003's landmark “The Black Album,” where he perfectly blends varied flow speeds, clever turns of phrase and booming beats. (Live, those jams are helmed by noted producer Timbaland, who also had his own often jaw-dropping solo interlude, and three other highly refined musicians, known collectively as the Four Horsemen.)

The new standouts maintain the momentum of his tack-sharp work with Kanye West (at Honda on Dec. 13) on 2011's “Watch the Throne,” a collaboration represented here by mass-dance-inducing runs through “No Church in the Wild” and “N-----s in Paris.” The latter track provided a pinnacle party moment with its placement in a medley between the playful “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)” and an overpowering “Public Service Announcement.”

Others off “Magna Carta,” however, played like cheap attempts to blend in with the less-skilled approaches of blatantly commercial types like 2 Chainz. Compare the four minutes of “F---withmeyouknowigotit” to something equally recent – like Jay's blistering verses on Drake's “Pound Cake,” performed mid-set – and its lyricism feels like pop-chart pandering. Same goes for “Beach Is Better,” which, though only a minute long, was needlessly played twice merely to let people scream “or Beyoncééé!” a little louder the second time the cut came to a pause.

Granted, there's nothing abnormal about a few guilty pleasures strewn here and there to get fans hyped. But those weren't the only instances of wasted time. Most irksome in the context of a relatively short production – only 90 minutes, when Jay typically plays two hours or more – was a 10-minute-plus pause to comment primarily on fans' clothing choices while putting their faces on giant screens.

“That's always my favorite part of the show,” he said afterward.

Hmmph. I was personally more partial to the amped up callback of “Jigga What, Jigga Who,” the epic chorus and silky raps of “Empire State of Mind,” the stripped-down approach (just Jay and a sparse piano line) applied to “Dead Presidents II,” and the tasteful dedication to Nelson Mandela during the encore closer, “Forever Young.”

Still, one can't help but admire an artist who could claim to be a rap genius – without touting himself the next Shakespeare, Michelangelo or Walt Disney – yet instead diverts attention away from himself and toward fans.

“I want you to know that no matter how many Grammys or No. 1's, nothing compares to this feeling right here,” he told the crowd. “There's a lot of (stuff) that goes into coming to a concert, so thank you. I'll never get jaded as long as I can get up on this (bleeping) stage.”

Take note, Kanye: Maintaining an audience of devout worshippers takes more than grossly exuded ego.

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